


let me comfort you

by iyam



Category: The Hollow (Cartoon)
Genre: Domestic, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Sickfic, i forgot about reeve i'm sorry, sick kai, skeet is not dead, skeet never died
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-20
Updated: 2020-08-20
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:14:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26003224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iyam/pseuds/iyam
Summary: Kai is sick and Adam is trying his very best to be a helpful boyfriend.
Relationships: Adam/Kai (The Hollow)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 61





	let me comfort you

**Author's Note:**

> i get sick too often and may have projected on kai. whoops. hope you enjoy!

Adam opened the door to his apartment with some difficulties, which was really his own fault since he had decided that there would only be one trip to bring the groceries in. It didn’t matter that there were six bags, he was perfectly capable of bringing them all in at once. 

But the universe was determined to remind him of humility, and he immediately tripped over something the moment he stepped over the threshold. Thankfully he was able to magically save the groceries from falling to the ground and spilling everywhere, even though his knees were definitely feeling worse for wear. He looked over his shoulder to glare at whatever object had decided to almost kill him and his protein drinks, but only saw Kai’s work shoes laying on their side.

On any other day, this wouldn’t have surprised Adam in the slightest, especially since Kai had a bad habit of not putting his shoes in the shoe box. But it was Wednesday, and Kai always stayed late at work on Wednesdays. 

With a frown on his face, Adam got up, leaving the groceries by the door. He popped his head into the living room, hoping to spot a Kai shaped lump on the couch playing video games, but there was no one there. 

He moved onto checking the office and the balcony, both places Kai liked to work when he was home, but they were both empty too, and Adam’s stress levels rose. The only place left was the master bedroom, and it was never a good sign if Kai was spending his time there during the day. 

One of the first things Adam had learned after they had moved in together was that Kai hated being in their bedroom. At first, Adam had thought it was just that Kai disliked the decorations, but a late-night conversation had brought out the fact that staying in any bedroom for too long made him feel like he was back in his parents’ house, cooped up in his bedroom all alone because there was nowhere else to be. 

All sorts of scenarios started running through Adam’s head as he walked over to their bedroom. Kai could have been having an anxiety attack, or maybe he had tripped in his lab and broken his leg, or maybe he had been kidnapped and then brought home, and there was a man in there holding a knife to Kai’s neck ready to kill him. 

Adam slammed into the room, ready to take down whoever was hurting his boyfriend, only to find no one there and nothing looking disturbed, other than the bed. 

“Adam.” came a groan from somewhere underneath a mountain of fluffy blankets on the bed, “Why are you slammin’ doors.” 

There was no kidnapper, just a sick Kai.

Adam plopped down on the bed, letting out a sigh of relief. He was sad that Kai was sick, but it was exponentially better than a home invasion. 

“Sorry. Just got worried cause you aren’t supposed to be home.”

There was a shuffling of the blankets, and a head of messy red hair popped out from underneath all of the blankets

“I’m sick,” Kai whined, “But work!”

Adam grimaced. Kai’s face was flushed, and his voice sounded like his throat had been sandpapered. And he was still worried about work. 

“Yeah, bud.” he said, pushing the hair off of Kai’s forehead, “You are definitely sick and will definitely not be working.” 

“My work, Adam! It’s due Friday.” Kai groaned and grabbed Adam’s hand, “I have reports.” He tried to sit up and try and grab at the laptop at the end of the bed, but only fell into a coughing fit.

Adam hummed and rubbed Kai’s back, “Hm, how about you just lie down and rest instead?”

“You sound like Vanessa. Please, stop sounding like Vanessa.”

“Did she kick you out of the office and send you home?”

Kai laid back down and pouted, “She yelled at me and called me stupid.”

Adam made a mental note to send Vanessa a thank you text for forcing Kai to come home. While he had been wary of her when Kai had first started working at the engineering company, she had proven to be helpful after a while. 

“You are not stupid, babe,” Adam said, kissing Kai’s forehead, “You just need to be resting. I’ll make you soup.”

He got up from the bed, trying to remember whether he had bought carrots or not, but a hot and clammy hand grabbed at his wrist and yanked him back. 

“Don’t leave,” Kai croaked, his eyes closed, “Don’t leave, please.”

Adam sat back down, a fond look on his face, “I wasn’t leaving, Kai. Just wanted to make food for you.”

“Don’t want food, just want hugs.” 

“Okay, you big baby,” Adam conceded and fit himself under the blankets, “I’ll stay with you till you’re asleep.” 

Kai immediately cuddled in close, putting his head on Adam’s chest, and Adam wrapped his arm around Kai’s shoulder. He closed his eyes, deciding that it would be fine if he just closed his eyes and rested for a little bit. He’d just get up in ten minutes and make an early dinner.  
\---  
The warm glow of the setting sun filtering through the open curtains had Adam sitting up and rubbing his eyes. The ten-minute nap he had planned had gone on for at least a couple of hours, and he still hadn’t made dinner. 

He looked over to the right where Kai was still curled up, sleeping. Kai’s face was even more flushed than before, and the sweat that was beading at his temple had Adam worrying a little. But Kai was still sleeping soundly instead of working, so he had to count his blessings. 

After carefully getting out of bed, he walked over to the bathroom and started looking through their cabinets, trying to find the thermometer they had bought when they first moved in and hadn’t used since. He had a vague memory of tossing it into one of the cabinets and then rushing back out to go pay the pizza delivery man. Or had it been in the kitchen? 

He was about to start tossing things out of the drawers when he finally saw the reflective plastic casing of the elusive thermometer poking out from underneath the corner of a tissue box. Adam grabbed at it, holding it up and grinning like a mad man before walking back to Kai.

When he got back to the bed, he softly stuck the thermometer into Kai’s ear and spent the thirty seconds it took to get a good reading just staring at Kai with a fond smile on his face. Even when he was sick, and there was snot running down his face, Kai was cute, and all Adam wanted to do was bundle him up and love him.

The soft beeping of the thermometer took him out of his thoughts and showed that Kai’s fever was at 101°F. It wasn’t a bad fever by any means, but Adam’s anxiety still rose. If he ever found out who had gotten Kai sick, he was going to drop kick them into another universe. 

But he couldn’t do that yet, so just making soup would have to be enough for now. The question was whether he knew how to make an edible soup, considering Kai had banned him from the kitchen after he had repeatedly almost set the kitchen on fire. With a groan, Adam pulled the curtains closed and walked back into the kitchen. Maybe if he stared toward the vegetables long enough, they’d come alive and tell him how to cook them.

There was soft buzzing coming from near the groceries, and for a second Adam thought his wish had come true and that the veggies were attempting to communicate with him. Then he remembered he owned a phone, and the buzzing was sounding very much like the ringtone Mira had set for herself. 

There was a muffled yell from the bedroom that sounded suspiciously like, “Pick up your damn phone, or I’ll break it!” and Adam scrambled to pick up his phone. 

“Vanessa texted Skeet about Kai being a sick dumbass,” Mira started, “and since I know you’re both dumbasses, I’m just calling to make sure you guys didn’t accidentally die.” 

“Actually, for your information, we are doing perfectly well. And are completely alive.”

“Is that right?” Mira laughed, “So if I come over there, Kai would be comfortably napping on the couch, he’d have taken his medicine, and there’d be food on the stove?”

Adam hesitates for a second, wanting to slam his head onto the wall, “Um, yes? Well, Kai is definitely asleep.” 

“Well, that’s one thing. He definitely needs more sleep, the idiot’s been working too hard again.”

“Yeah, I’ve talked to him about it before,” Adam admits, “Should’ve expected he’d get sick eventually.”

“You can whoop his ass after he feels better. Are you going to attempt to make dinner?”

“Kai deserves a home-cooked meal! And I’m going to give it to him!”

“But you need help?”

“I need help.”

“What’s new? I’m the only thing keeping all of you guys alive.” Mira laughed.

“Yes, Mira, you are very great,” Adam replied while wedging the phone between his shoulder and his ear so he could finally take the groceries to the kitchen. 

Mira hummed in agreement, “Exactly. Now, tell me what you need.”

“A soup recipe? With step by step directions?” Adam begged. He really didn’t want to end up having to go buy canned soup for Kai.

“Hm. Well, Skeet knows a good soup, and he’s free so, gimme a sec.”  
“Wait, Mira-”

“Yo, bro. Heard Kai was sick. That sucks,” Skeet drawled into the phone, “but don’t worry, my soup’s great. Do you have potatoes?”

Adam looked into the bags of groceries, realized he’d forgotten to buy potatoes and slammed his head onto the kitchen counter with a groan. 

\---

It took almost an hour and a half, and it had almost failed multiple times, but at the end of it, he had made a pretty good soup (sans potatoes), thanks to Skeet. Adam had thanked him profusely by the end of it and promised to buy him donuts the next they meet up for coffee. 

With the soup softly simmering on the stove and the sky being completely dark, Adam deemed it time to go and wake up Kai. But when he walked into the room, he realized there was no need because Kai was up and typing away at his laptop. 

“Kai! Put the laptop away!” For one second, Adam wished he had a spray bottle so he could spritz Kai with water every time he wasn’t resting. 

Kai slammed the laptop closed quickly and looked up innocently at Adam through his lashes, his face still flushed red. 

“I wasn’t working.” Kai croaked out and triggered another coughing fit that ended with him wincing and falling back onto the headboard. 

Adam couldn’t stop the laugh that came out of him. “That’s what you get for not resting. Maybe don’t try and talk for now. Come on, I made dinner.”

Kai looked at him with a surprised look on his face and then crossed his arms and shook his head. 

“It’s edible!” Adam promised, holding out a hand to Kai “Skeet walked me through it, and I promise that it won't give you food poisoning."

With a huff, Kai wrapped one of the blankets around himself and shakingly got to his feet. He was heavily leaning onto Adam as they walked into the kitchen, and at one point, they had to stop so that Kai could pick up the blanket that had slipped off of his shoulders.

They finally made it to the dining table, and Adam helped Kai sit down before serving him a big bowl of his soup, which surprisingly still looked good to eat. He had been worried that it would have turned into inedible slop in the short bit he had gone away from it. 

Kai eyed the bowl in front of him suspiciously before spooning up some of the broth and eating it. His eyes suddenly went wide, and he gave an enthusiastic thumbs up before continuing to eat. 

Smiling, Adam took a seat and just watched Kai as he worked through his dinner slowly. Was it a little creepy to be staring at Kai for that long? Maybe, but Kai was his boyfriend, and damn it, Adam was allowed to stare at him. 

When he had eaten about half of the soup, Kai pushed back his bowl and put his head down on the table, tilted so he could still see Adam. 

“You full?” Adam asked, and when Kai gave a small nod, he got up to put the bowl back into the kitchen. He poured a cap full of cold medicine and grabbed a lemon-flavored popsicle from the freeze before walking back out. 

The moment Kai saw the medicine, he sat straight up and tried to push the chair away from the table. Kai might have been a full-on adult with a master's degree, a job, and bills to pay, but making him take medicine was always difficult. 

Adam could hear Kai’s complaints by just looking at his face. 

No! Don’t do this, Adam! I’m fine, Adam, keep the disgusting syrup away from me! 

Adam merely held up the popsicle instead of trying to argue with Kai about why he definitely needed to take his medicine. There was a moment of contemplation, during which Kai squinted at the ice cream, as if suspicious of whether Adam was trying to trick him somehow. Maybe he thought the popsicle was a fake. 

“Kai, the popsicle’s real.” 

Kai shakily got up from his chair and first grabbed the ice cream before taking the plastic cap and downing the medicine in one go. His face immediately scrunched up in utter disgust, and he crouched over, on hand on his knee and the other holding the cap back towards Adam. 

Adam rubbed Kai’s back for a bit in solidarity because the medicine did truly taste horrible and must have been torturous considering Kai’s throat already hurt. But it was a necessary evil if it would help Kai feel better. 

By the time Adam got back from the kitchen, Kai was sitting down on the couch, bundled up, and sucking on the popsicle. He picked up the remote control that had somehow made its way to the dining table and then sat down next to Kai, putting his arm over Kai’s shoulder.

“You wanna watch something?” he whispered, carding his fingers through Kai’s hair.

Kai nodded, “The Office.”

Adam placed a kiss on Kai’s hair and pulled up the movie before relaxing a bit. Kai was comfortable and was hopefully on his way to feeling better, and that show had turned into a sort of comfortable bedtime story for him after all of the years they had watched it together. 

He pulled Kai closer and leaned into the couch, finally feeling more at ease. 

\-----

A week later, Adam was bundled up with Kai laughing as he placed a cool, wet towel on his forehead. 

“You thought it was a burglar trying to kill me?”

“I got worried!” 

“Well, I would always love to see you kick someone's ass. But, you have the strength of a puppy right now. Lie back down, babe.”

**Author's Note:**

> i put shrek as a placeholder for what they were going to watch and my genius friend came up with  
> \- adam kicks open the door and yells: DONKEH  
> \- the alternative ending which was  
> adam, feverish: kai will you do me the honor of being the donkey to my dragon?  
> kai: i think you're more of an ass than i am but sure dude 
> 
> honestly they should've written the fic instead of me


End file.
